The Booknapping
by Tuzilla
Summary: Hermione discovers a strange, out of place, magical book in muggle bookstore. In deciphering its title she is booknapped into the world of Zork I. Now she must solve the game to escape back to reality.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Ginny roared across the pitch like a charging lion, knocking two challengers hard into each other with vicious hip checks before faking out the keeper and sailing the quaffle through the left hoop with a lazy flip. Everything stopped as the quaffle was retrieved and the two opposing chasers righted themselves.

"What?" said Ginny, smirking a bit as she looked at her stunned teammates. "What?"

"Damn, Samurai, lighten up a little. This is only practice," said one of them as they pulled their helmet back around straight. "Save some of that for the game."

"Don't worry. I've still got plenty of 'that'," she laughed as she streaked off toward the other end of the pitch.

"I would hate to be her boyfriend," said the teammate to the other hip check damaged teammate.

"You know who her boyfriend is, don't you?"

"Yeah—Harry Potter," stated the first one. "Still wouldn't want to cross her at home. He's probably the only one who has a chance with her."

"I still don't think there is much doubt who is on top and has the best knickers in that relationship," the second one chuckled.

A whistle blew and the Harpie's practice ended a few minutes later. Ginny flew over to where Hermione was standing, watching the practice and reading a book. She hopped off her broom and gave Hermione a firm hug.

"Giving your teammates a bit of a rough time, are we?" said Hermione with a bit of a grin."

"They need it," replied Ginny. "Got to be ready for Falmouth. They play rough. Won't be any love in their hits. At least I put a bit of love in mine."

"Hermione laughed. "That is some tough-looking love, Gin."

Ginny laughed as well. "I guess love hurts, sometimes."

The two of them walked to the outside of the stadium and onto the sidewalk. It was a testament to the skills of the wizarding world that an entire quidditch stadium could be hidden so close to a muggle town without being detected.

They headed to a local restaurant where they could get a warm drink and some lunch. It specialized in soups and salads from fresh, local ingredients.

They sat down at a table to chat near the front window. They had become good friends in the years after the war. But their respective careers kept them apart more than they would like. Harry and Ron also being occupied with auror studies further complicated their social interactions. They treasured these chances to be together for small talk and decompression.

"I still have a closed practice in a bit," said Ginny, taking a spoon and stirring her soup. "No one is allowed in to watch. It should be over by 4:30. We can do things after that."

"That's fine," replied Hermione.

"What will you do until then?"

"I think I will wander through the muggle shops" replied Hermione, picking at her salad and sipping her cappuccino. "I can always find something interesting in them I used to love going shopping with my mom."

"Good. I'll join you for some shopping after the practice. You can show me around the muggle shops. I found a new place for dinner. You're going to love it. They have the freshest seafood. Right off the boats."

"Great. I am tired of Ministry food. The elves there are less than inspired. They make you really appreciate the crew we had back at Hogwarts."

They finished their all too quick lunch with a shared banoffee pie. "See you after practice. I will meet you here about 4:30," said Ginny as she picked up the check and got up to head back to the stadium.

"See you later," replied Hermione.

Hermione left a tip on the table and walked out of the restaurant. She looked around and decided to go toward the stores to the left. It promised to be a street filled with various shopping opportunities.

Hermione walked down the street while looking in the windows at all sorts of offerings such as purses, shoes, clothing, cookware, gadgets she had never seen before. Then she turned a corner and saw a sign that attracted her like a moth to a flame, a piece of iron to a magnet.

"_BOOKS!_" she exclaimed in her mind. She had found exactly the needed store destined to hold her interest until time for her to meet back up with Ginny.

"_This is going to be fun_," she thought as she entered the shop. She had not been in a muggle bookstore since before she left for her first year at Hogwarts. Her parents had taken her to the ones near her home as a child. She used to spend hours in them with her paper friends. This was truly exciting her on several levels.

As she walked past the counter, an elderly man seated behind it smiled and said "Hello" to her. This was like a return to her childhood.

Old memories were soon rushing to fill her mind. There was row after row of shelves filled with books calling to her eyes for attention. The air smelled of paper, ink and glue mixed with hot tea and scones from the counter on the other side of the shop. She was in love. It was all the same as she remembered it. It was so similar, yet so different from magical bookshops. A whiff of amortentia should smell so good.

Looking around, it was like time was standing still. Children were playing and looking at colorful books in the Kids Section. A group of young women were all holding copies of a new novel as the chatted about the previous stories by the author. A gaunt guy with a beard and beret was reading poetry to an enraptured girl with long, stringy, black hair and a body that was about ten pounds short of being skinny.

Walking toward the back of the shop, she suddenly noticed a small section in a part of an aisle. 'Magic Books' said a small, neatly-written sign. She imagined it was always there in bookshops, but that she had never visited a section of that name as a child. Now the prospect of inspecting what the muggle world deemed as magic was intriguing.

The first couple of books she selected featured a lot of card tricks. It relied on trick decks and sleight of hand. Then she looked at ones using a diversion to accomplish the trick. None of it was actually magic. She could do better than all of it with a simple swish and flick of her wand.

One book featured big stage tricks. you could learn to make yourself appear or disappear. You could conjure a lion or tiger. It even showed how to saw another person in half or make then levitate. It was still pretty silly compared to real magic.

Then she saw a slim, black book hiding between a pair of much gaudier volumes. It looked ancient from the outside, almost out of place amidst the others. Maybe it had something interesting in it.

She slid a finger in between the other books and tipped it outward so that she could pull it free. The title was simply four characters that looked like ancient runes. The author's name was Pompeius Dominum.

"_What a strange looking book_," she thought as she examined the book's unusual artwork and design. The feel of the cover was unlike anything she had ever felt on a muggle book. "_This looks like it would be more at home in the library at Hogwarts, maybe even in the Restricted Section of the library_."

This was clearly the most interesting book she had found in the section. Her curiosity was peaked. She opened the book only to discover that it was written in Latin. "_Really,_" she thought, starting to close it when the words magically transformed into English. Welcome, Adventurer. Enjoy the wonders of"… she was then confronted with the same runes as the cover.

She dug into her Burberry and pulled out her copy of Spellman's Syllabary. The first one she found was the second rune. It was Othala or Odal. It gave an O sound and could represent riches or inheritance. Her second find was the first rune. It was Zaman, which represented a quest.

Raidho was her next find. It meant a journey or adventure with heroism and discovery. The last rune was Kenaz which was the torch of knowledge and enlightenment. All of them were listed in the obscure or uncommon section.

"_We never studied any these in Ancient Runes class. Zaman Othala…It's the title of the book. I wonder what it all means? It is like it is saying you are going on a quest to find treasures or something. Zaman Othala Raidho Kenaz._"

Everything suddenly got blurry, like when you apparate, then darkness swallowed. As she came back around, she felt dizzy, almost nauseated, like the time she had innocently consumed too much mead before she understood the effects of alcohol on the brain.

"_What happened_?" she thought, a bit of fear in her mind. "_This isn't the bookstore. I'm outside. How did I get here? Where am I_?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

As her head started to clear, she sat up. She was in the middle of a grassy field with flowers. Birds were chirping and a light breeze was rustling the grasses. In the distance she could see an older, white house sitting in front of a forest of trees.

"_Where am I? How did I get here_?" she thought. "_I wonder if anyone is at home in that house_? _Maybe they can sort this out_."

Hermione stood up and walked toward the house. As she neared it, she could see that the windows were boarded up…not a good sign.

"_It looks a bit like the Shrieking Shack. Can it be? Nah, I don't think so_."

There was a piece of mail in the mailbox, but it turned out to be nothing more than a flyer advertising muggle video games. She headed around behind the house to see if it was also boarded up. She was surprised to see one of the windows was slightly ajar.

Walking up to the window she called out to get the attention of anyone who might be inside. Getting no response, she decided to climb inside to look around.

It was a bit of an effort, she had been letting herself go soft working at the Ministry. However, she finally managed, with a thud as she fell to the floor, to make it inside. Once there, she found herself in the kitchen. Someone had been here recently. There was a brown paper bag smelling of spicy food, such as peppers, and a bottle of water. An archway led into another part of the house while a dark stairway led up. There was also an open chimney big enough to crawl down…yucky.

She walked through the archway into the living room. Across the room was a wooden door with strange, runic markings on it that was nailed shut. An empty trophy case was against the wall with an old lamp on it. A very ornate sword was mounted above it. An Oriental rug covered part of the floor.

"_Curious place_," she thought as Fluffy popped into her mind for some undetectable reason. This prompted her to move the rug. Under it was a trap door. With all of her strength she managed to pull it open. There was a stairway leading downward, perhaps to the cellar.

"_I've gone this far_," she thought, "_I may as well look down there_."

"Lumos," she said as she pulled out her wand and raised it. Nothing happened. "Lumos," she repeated. "_Strange_," she thought. "_Why isn't my wand working_?"

She picked up the lamp and turned it one. It gave off a very adequate amount of light as she stepped down onto the first stair.

She cautiously descended the creaky, wooden stairs. As she reached the bottom the trap door slammed closed with a resounding thud. She could hear someone barring it.

"HEY! I'M DOWN HERE! LET ME OUT!" she screamed to no avail. She was trapped in a dank, damp cellar. "What the hell?"

She tried to apparate back to her office, but that type of magic did not seem to work. For whatever reason, she waved her wand to cast a Four Point Spell. Unlike the lumos charm, it worked. She tried the lumos spell, again. It still did not work.

"At least some magic works," she thought.

In the light from the lamp she could see passages to the north and south of her. There was a steel chute that was too steep to climb to the west. Picking south, she walked until she found herself on the edge of a chasm. It was apparently quite deep, too deep for the lamp to light its bottom.

She continued walking carefully along its brink. Suddenly, she found herself walking into the remains of an art gallery. All of the paintings had been taken or stolen, except one. It was a gorgeous landscape that fancied Hermione's eye.

"_What the heck_," she thought, pulling it down and sliding it with an uncharacteristic bit of a struggle into her Burberry. "_Everyone else has taken one. I might as well take one, too_."

After a few minutes of walking, she passed through the door at the end of the gallery and into the artist's studio. It was splattered floor to ceiling with every imaginable color. A fireplace with a chimney was across the room. Could this be the open chimney she saw in the kitchen? She stepped in to investigate. There was a dim light above.

"Ascendio," she said, pointing her wand upwards. A couple seconds later she was back in the kitchen. "_That was weird_," she thought, looking around for whoever had locked her in the cellar. "_Maybe they are upstairs_."

The stairs led her into a dark, empty attic. The only things in it were a rope and an old knife. She took them, thinking they may prove useful after the last little adventure. She descended and went into the living room. Strangely, the trapdoor was not barred.

"_I probably should have tested it_," she thought. "_There could be more down there_." Then, looking at the sword, she dropped the knife and took it. "_Who knows_?"

She pulled open the trapdoor. Just before going down she placed the painting in the trophy case for safe keeping. There was a strange dinging noise as she closed it. Once again, she descended the stairs only to hear the door slam closed. She went back up to test it. It was firmly sealed. Even her spells would not open it. This time she went to the north. The blade of her sword was glowing blue.

"_Weird_," she thought.

A putrid stench emanated from the room as she entered it. Then an axe blade flashed past her face. It was a cave troll, and he was out for blood. Hermione was not the same frightened first year who almost was killed by the mountain troll in the girl's bathroom. She swung the sword, but the troll deflected it causing it to strike the wall and bounce back, cutting her arm. He took an erratic swing losing his balance. Hermione hit him hard across the midsection with the sword, laying him out. With another swing, she finished him.

He disappeared in a cloud of black fog. Her sword was no longer glowing. She dropped the sword next to the skeleton of someone who must have fallen victim to the troll long ago, thinking it must be broken. Her arm throbbed from the pain. She pulled a bottle of essence of dittany from her bag and applied it to the wound. The pain dissipated.

"_He could have killed me,_" she thought. "_What kind of place is this? I have got to find my way out of here._"

She wrapped a headscarf from her bag around her arm and walked east passed two more skeletons and then up some stairs to the north. This led her into a large, round room with many exits, many of which were blocked by cave-ins.

"_Okay, which one, Granger_?" she thought. "_Think_."

Thinking of the room like points on a compass, she picked the SE entrance because it looked cleaner and a bit larger. She marked the way she had come into the room with a rune, and then also marked the new path in case she returned to this room. That way she would remember the ones she had already taken.

The cave was covered with a great many engravings. Whoever had preceded her had spent a lot of time decorating the cave walls with all sorts of things. The cave exited onto the mezzanine of a tall room featuring an intricate domed ceiling. She was glad there was a wooden railing. It had prevented her from accidentally walking off the edge. Below her was a room with what appeared to be a marble floor. Something was standing in the center of it.

After a bit of thought, she tied the rope onto the railing so she could lower herself down. It turned out that the rope only reached about halfway. Letting go, she dropped onto the floor, which was, indeed, marble. The structure in the middle of the room was a marble pedestal with an ivory torch blazing away to light the room. She turned and walked south through an archway that turned into giant, marble columns.

The new room was a large temple of some sort. The eastern wall was covered by a prayer-like inscription in an ancient language. Below the prayer was a descending stairway. A table sat next to it with a little, brass bell on it.

"_I used to think the dungeons at Hogwarts were odd_," she thought as she walked down the steps.

The stairs emptied into a room resembling one of the Egyptian tombs she had seen in the pictures of the Weasley family vacation to Egypt. A solid gold coffin fit for a pharaoh sat in the middle of the room. Not being against a little capitalism, Hermione fought it into her Burberry.

This room was proved to be a dead end. She returned to the temple and approached the altar in hopes of finding another passage. In a dark corner behind it, she spotted an opening. Wriggling through it, she suddenly found herself outside in the middle of a forest. Seeing sunlight to the east, she turned off the lamp and walked towards it.

She eventually found a clearing where to path split east and west. She went east, eventually arriving at the western edge of a great canyon with a vast forest and mighty river roaring below her. The other side of the canyon rose up into massive, white mountains. Upstream she could see a waterfall. She headed towards it.

Upon reaching the waterfall she found a path leading down. She walked downward to a rocky ledge. The path toward the waterfall looked too treacherous, so she continued downward until she reached the canyon floor and a small, rocky beach. Suddenly, a large spider appeared in front of her on a rock.

"Good thing Ron isn't here," she thought, picking up a rock to throw at it as it moved her way.

Then there were two of them coming at her. Then another, and another, another, and another, and another. They were coming at her from all directions. She was surrounded. She pulled out her wand and yelled "Immobius". Nothing happened. She tried "Confringo!" "Reducto!" and other attacking and repelling charms. None of them work The spider kept coming. "Protego!" Nothing helped.

Then the spiders were on her. She could feel their feet crawling up her legs, across her breasts and face as the starting wrapping her in their gauzy silk.

"Think, Granger!" her mind was screaming. "I'm going to die!"

They had big, nasty, pointy fangs, but they were yet to bite her. Maybe that was the way they liked their prey…alive and wriggling. A poem suddenly popped into her head.

Old, Missus Buffet

Sat on his tuffet

Eating his curds and whey

Along came a spider

And sat down beside her

So she used peppermint

To chase it away

Hermione wiggled her fingers into her bag. "Accio peppermint oil, she said.

The bottle popped into her hand. With the determined effort of a person fearing for their life, she got it open. It spilled onto her fingers and she poked them out between the silky strands. Flicking them as hard as she could, she sprayed droplets at the spiders.

Suddenly, the spiders turned and ran off. The peppermint oil trick really worked. Now she had to free herself. It took a considerable amount of time and effort, but she freed an arm. From there she freed her other arm and eventually extricated her from the death trap that had almost enveloped her.

"Ohmigod," she panted, sitting up and surveying her surrounding to make certain the spiders were gone.

She needed a break before continuing, so she wrestled the coffin out of her bag to examine it. In the process, she dropped it and it broke open revealing a jewel-encrusted scepter. As she picked up the scepter a rainbow appear that was seemingly solid enough to walk on. Stepping onto it, she could see something at the end. Before long she found herself in possession of a pot of gold.

"_Awesome_," she thought, sliding it into her bag along with the scepter and coffin. "_I'll be rich, if I find my way home_."

She followed the beach along the river and into the trees. All of a sudden she found herself back behind the white house.

"_I must have just walked in a giant circle,_" she thought.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Hermione re-entered the house. "I had better stash this stuff in that trophy case with the painting," she thought.

There was some loud dinging as she placed the coffin, scepter and pot of gold inside.

"_That dinging means something_," she thought. "_I wonder if I am stuck in some type of quest_?"

She was hungry, so she ate a fairly disgusting sandwich from the bag and drank the water on the table. It had been some time since she had slept. She had no idea of the time or how long she had been there. What she did know was she was tired.

She looked at a dilapidated, old chair in the corner. Walking over to it, she plopped down and closed her eyes. She had no idea of how long she had been asleep when she woke up.

"_Has this all been a dream_?" was her first thought as she cracked open her eyes.

It was not a dream. She was still here, trapped in the strange place. She got up and started looking around. Greed being what it is, and the fact that the dinging must mean something convinced Hermione to re-open the trapdoor and descend once more into the underground world.

The door resealed itself as she headed off to the north with the lamp lighting the way. She passed through the room where she had killed the troll, stepping over the sword and the troll's bloody axe.

After a few minutes, she made it to the chasm. Walking northeast, she found a crack in the wall that led her to the edge of a vast body of water too deep and wide to cross.

"It is like an underground Black Lake," she thought.

There was the sound of water rushing to the east. She walked in that direction, eventually finding herself on top of a large, abandoned flood control dam. She walked passed a control panel and a large, metal nut with a green, plastic bubble sitting over it.

Passing into the lobby, she picked up a book of matches as a marker of where she was at. A door across the room marked Private caught her attention. She opened it and found herself in a maintenance room. There are several buttons on the wall and some tools and a toolbox on a table.

She picked up the wrench and screwdriver because they look useful. She left the rest.

"_I can always come back if I need more_," she thought.

On the way out she accidentally bumped the yellow button. It went click, but nothing seemed to happen. As she walked back out onto the dam, she noticed the green plastic bubble is now glowing. Suddenly, the sluice gates open and water starts pouring through them.

"_I wonder if that yellow button caused that to happen_?" she wondered.

She looked at the big metal bolt and the wrench. "_I was going to try to open those gates with this. I guess I'll just leave it here, now_," she thought as she dropped the wrench.

Walking south along the canyon she could hear a loud roar, like rushing water, below. She went down the stairway of the trail until she entered a huge room. The sound inside it was deafening at a painful level. Waves of nausea pulsed through her. She had to get out of there. A platinum bar was at her feet, but the need to leave was greater than the desire to take it.

With a great effort, she made it out of the room where she collapsed. It took several minutes for the ringing in her ears to stop and for her to regain her equilibrium. She carefully made it back up the stairs and backtracked through by the dam and through the cave with the engravings.

Entering the domed room, she looked at the torch and decided to take it. She turned off the lamp and used to the torch to light her way. She also took the bell.

"_Why not_?" she thought.

She made it to the altar. It was lit by two candles. A book on it was turned to page 569.

"_This is written in English. It must mean something_," she thought as she took it.

She also took the candles just in case. Just beyond the altar was a downward staircase. It looked forbidding, but it might lead out of this nightmare.

"_I guess I need to investigate it. Nothing so far has gotten me any closer to escaping this place. I may as well check out this path_," she rationalized with herself.

A foul, sulfuric odor came up the stairway as she descended. It reminded her of the smell on the rocks after a dragon had cooked them with fire. It was rather foreboding.

At the bottom of the stairway, she was confronted with an ancient, black metal gate. Above it was a sign reading "**_A_****_bandon every hope all ye who enter here!_**" The gate was open, but a pair of demonic spirits barred her from entering. She could hear the wailing and crying of uncounted lost souls coming from inside. A feeling of hopelessness grew in her as she peered through it.

"_DEMENTORS_!" her mind screamed. "_No, they can't be…or are they? Or are they something similar? I hate this place_!"

Her hand began to shake involuntarily, causing the little bell to jingle, as the demons taunted her. Suddenly, they froze with a look of terror on their faces. The little bell grew hot as it rang, causing her to drop it.

The light from her torch died. She took the candles and tried to light them with her wand, but her wand would not function. Then she remembered the matches. She struck one and lit a candle. As the flame flickered and danced to life the ground started to shake. Lighting the second candle caused even greater shaking, nearly toppling her as the wraiths were cowering behind the gate.

Hermione instinctively began reading the prayer in the book. "_This means something,_" she thought. When she finished the last sentence, "_Return to the shadows from which you were born_," a shrill scream echoed through the air as the wraith-like demons disappeared into nothingness.

Hermione gathered all of her courage and walked through the gates. The wailing and crying of the lost souls of Hades tortured her ears as she looked around. Some of the voices sounded vaguely familiar as she walked. Then she saw faces on some of them. She saw Bellatrix, Yaxley, Rowle, Dolohov, Carrow, and others.

"Come join us," sneered Bellatrix with a defiant look.

"Yes," said Barty Crouch Jr. licking his lip. "Come play with us. We promise to be really nice."

"_I've got to get out of here_," thought Hermione, the ugly evil of the place threatening to drown her.

Just as she started to turn and flee she saw something in a dim recess. It was a spectacular crystal skull. "_I am definitely not coming back here_," she thought, grabbing it. Seconds later she was out through the gate and ascending the stairs, the howls of the damned following her. She never even took time to pick up the bell, candles and book. She was just glad to be out of there.

Her wand started working as she reached the top of the stairs. She walked north, entering a room with a gigantic mirror on one of the walls. The floor shook as she walked north into a cold, damp corridor. "Brrr," she uttered, pulling her jumper tighter.

The corridor emptied into a room that looked like the entrance to a mine, probably a coal mine from the looks of things. The words Granite Wall were etched on the south wall. A metal slide descended into the depths to the east. She decided to continue north through a small entrance.

She touched the mirror to test its integrity. "_It's definitely a mirror_," she thought as she felt a rumbling from deep in the earth. She started walking down a damp corridor into the mine.

"_This is definitely a coal mine_," she thought as she looked at her surroundings. "_Seems like a strange place for a mine. But this is a strange place_." After a bit more walking she was in a room where she could hear squeaky noises coming from adjacent corridors.

A few steps into the first corridor she found herself entering a room full of fleeing bats. In the corner was a huge bat that was holding its nose. She recognized it as a vampire, then remembered the garlic in her bag. It was apparently keeping him at bay.

An exquisite jade statue was on the floor. She picked it up and tried to put it into her bag, but it wouldn't fit. Her bag, like her wand, was only partially functional. I'll have to get it later," she thought.

The room had a small shaft descending into the depths. A basket on a chain hung over it. She pulled the screwdriver and a couple of other things out of her bag and placed them in the basket in hope of being about to take the jade figurine. It still would not fit. She extinguished the torch, which was now in the basket, and turned on the lamp.

The path led her in and out of a foul-smelling room and into another room stinking of coal gas. She was glad she had opted for the lamp over the torch. She knew the coal gas was dangerous around an open flame.

There was a sapphire encrusted bracelet on the ground. She picked it up, but could not get it into her bag. "_I'll leave it here as a landmark_," she thought. "_I will figure out how to get it later_."

Walking onward, she quickly found herself in a maze of mine shafts. After many twists and turn found herself at an end with only the option of turning back or descending a ladder. Not being able to think of a reason to turn back, she climbed downward.

The shaft only went a short distance before coming to an end with a sign reading "End of Mine". There was a small pile of coal there. She picked up some of the coal to examine it. A couple of pieces fell out of her hand and disappeared into her bag. "_What the Hell_?" she thought.

Figuring the coal must be of value, she put a bunch of it into her bag. She then ascended the stairs to travel back into familiar territory. Once she had found her way back to the room with the bracelet she took the coal out of her purse and put it into the basket in hopes of now being able to take the bracelet. It did not work. In addition, the weight of the coal caused the basket to suddenly descend into the depths. Pulling on it would not raise it.

She climbed back down hoping to find the basket. After considerable searching, she found it in a room full of fallen timbers. She emptied her purse and stashed the contents next to a large timber. She took the torch, coal and screwdriver. Her first inclination was to take it back up to the bracelet room, but she decided to explore the shaft she was in first.

In a short time, she found herself in a room with a strange machine that looked like a muggle clothes dryer. The door was open. There were several pieces of coal on the floor. She wondered if she should put the coal in the machine.

"_What the heck_?" she thought as she tossed her coal into the machine and closed the door. She could see an on/switch, but her finger was too big to poke into the hole to push it. Then she remembered the screwdriver. It fit perfectly and caused the machine to spring to life.

Brilliant lights were flashing on the console and the machine made strange, eerie noises. This went on for several minutes. Then the machine abruptly stopped and the door popped open. Inside was a very large, perfect diamond.

Hermione was not a fool. She took it and stashed it away with a big smile.

She ascended upward through the mine. Eventually, she found the timber room where she picked up the skull, lamp and garlic. Continuing on, she was almost back to the bracelet room when a stranger whisked through the room and disappeared. Unbeknownst to her, he stole some of her treasure. She called out to him, but it was in vain.

She made it to the bracelet room and picked up the bracelet out of habit. She was surprised it fit into her purse. Continuing on, she passed the vampire and found herself in the slide room where she briefly saw the mysterious strange again. Sliding down it, she suddenly emerged in the living room.

"_Oh my God_," she thought as she opened the trophy case. "_Where's the skull and bracelet_?" A burning sensation filling her mind as she placed the jade figurine and diamond in the case. "_That stranger must have nicked them_." She wanted to go after him but needed to rest.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

After a nap of undetermined length, she made it back into the cellar on a quest to find the stolen bracelet.

She took the path leading to the reservoir. Upon arrival, she was surprised to see it had been drained, probably a result of her opening the gates. In the mud that was once the bottom of the lake, she found a trunk full of jewels. It quickly disappeared into her bag.

Hermione continued walking along the stream that was once a wide reservoir. She eventually found herself at a slimy stairway leading up. There was a hand-held air pump on the first step. "_This may prove useful_," she thought as she put it into her purse.

Halfway up the stairs, she found the entrance to an ancient-looking room that had been long underwater. An ornate trident that looked worthy of Poseidon was lying in the corner. She tried to put it into her purse, but it would not fit.

After some thought, she dropped the torch on the ground. The lamp seemed adequate for her travels. This time the trident fit neatly inside her purse. She started walking onward wondering what else she might find.

She eventually made it to the base of the dam. There was a pile of plastic there with an air valve that fit the pump. Moments later she had inflated a raft and moved it into the stream.

The raft carried her down the frigid river for some time. The impassable white cliffs loom on one side. The rock bank on the other looked difficult to land on. After a while, the current started speeding up. She saw a red buoy. It was probably a warning.

She grabbed the buoy, trying to stop herself, but it was not tied. It came into the raft with her. She paddled hard with her hands and made it to a small, sandy beach on the eastern shore.

There was a small shovel on the ground. "I wonder if someone buried something here," she thought as she tossed the buoy and garlic, which was starting to smell more spoiled than garlicky, on the ground.

She took the shovel and started poking around. Suddenly she unearthed a jeweled scarab. "Jackpot!"

Several holes later she decided there was nothing else to find. She walked back to the raft and tossed away the shovel. It hit the buoy. The buoy split open to reveal a large emerald. She stashed it and the scarab in her purse.

She began walking along the river bank towards the roaring sound. Before long she found herself at the top of a waterfall off at least four or five hundred feet in height.

She was pretty sure this was the same rainbow where she had found the pot of gold. She walked across it and onto the semi-familiar canyon view spot from early in her adventure. A few minutes later she was in the field within view of the house.

As she walked up the path she suddenly saw some movement in the knee-high grass. "_What is it_?" she thought as whatever it was came closer and closer. Suddenly, a huge, grayish snake raised up hissing in front of her. With its head more than three-foot in the air, the snake had to be over ten-feet long. She recognized it as a cobra from her muggle animals school book.

"Ohhhhhhhhmigod!" she gasped, frozen to the ground.

It moved forward with its mouth open and yellow eyes blazing at her as she backed up. She could see its fangs on both sides of its flicking tongue. Her first instinct was to run, but she started looking for more snakes. After the incident with the spiders, she needed to get a look at her surroundings before setting to flight.

There was a flash of brown beside her right foot as she jumped fearing another snake. But as he eyes focused on it, she saw it was brown, and ferret-like. Her heart was beating about a million beats and minute. "Pavarti would have died on the spot," she thought, remembering the giant cobra that menaced her during the boggart lesson. Unfortunately, there was no chance a Ridikulus spell would affect this snake, even if her wand was working.

"I know what that is," her mind suddenly flashed, remembering more of the animals in her muggle school book. "That's a mongoose."

The mongoose had its eyes fixed on the snake as it started easing forward, making quick darts to the left and right. The snake focused in on its enemy, losing interest in Hermione. It was the beginning of a lethal dance that would only end when one of them was dead.

The snake struck as the mongoose charged in, almost taunting it. The mongoose moved left. The snake recoiled and hissed menacingly. It struck at least five more times in rapid succession. The mongoose ran behind it, causing the snake to turn around to stay eye-to-eye with it.

The mongoose made several more probing moves causing the snake to strike at it dozens of times. Was it trying to fatigue the snakes? What was its strategy?

Despite her fear, Hermione was transfixed by the battle. She had never witnessed anything so deadly and fascinating. It was way beyond wizard's chess.

The dance continued as the mongoose seemed to be measuring his foe. The snake hissed and struck. There was no retreat in this battle. The mongoose was not going anywhere. It was there until the end. The snake's only chance was a lucky strike.

Then, in a flash, the mongoose dodged a strike and had the cobra by the back of the head. The snake twisted and coiled as the mongoose viciously shook its victim, breaking its back and killing it.

The snake lay on the ground with its mouth agape. Something inside its mouth was glistening. As the mongoose bit down on the snake behind its head and started to drag it off, a dazzling, blood red ruby the size of a hen's egg fell out on the ground. Hermione quickly grabbed it and put it in her bag.

A few minutes later she had crawled through the window and was in the kitchen. The bag on the table had a fresh lunch in it. She ate it and drank the bottle of water.

Hermione walked into the living room and placed the trident, emerald, scarab and jewels in the trophy case. It dinged several times. She smiled with a sense of accomplishment. "_I must be on the right track,_" she thought. "_Maybe I will get out of here, yet._"

She decided to continue looking for treasures. The skull and bracelet she the stranger had stolen surely needed to be found and retrieved. She sat down in the old chair for a moment of rest before heading back on her search. When she woke up, she had no idea how much time had passed.

"_Best get moving,_" she thought as she walked into the kitchen. She paused to eat another of the spicy sandwiches that seemed to magically appear in the bag. The bottle of water tasted good as it washed down the taste of the sandwich.

Hermione climbed out the window, opting to go back into the underground from where she had exited it, instead of going through the trapdoor into the dampness of the troll room.

She walked into the dimly lit forest on the leafy path. If not for her situation, she would probably find this a very pleasant stroll. As she passed under a tree, a very neat nest just out of her reach caught her eye. For some unknown reason, she decided to climb up and look at it.

As she climbed up she snagged her pant leg, ripping a sizable hole it. "Damn it!" she cursed in an uncustomary outburst as she reconsidered why she wanted to climb the tree in the first place. Reaching the branch with the nest, she was rewarded by finding a large, delicate-looking egg encrusted with precious jewels. It quickly made its way into her bag.

She climbed down carefully, trying not to do any further damage to her ruined pants. Having second thoughts, she returned to the house and proceeded to descend into the cellar using the light from the brass lantern.

She passed through the troll room and into the maze, which was becoming fairly familiar to her by now. When she came to the skeleton that had startled her the first time she saw it she was more observant. On the ground were a leather bag and a skeleton key.

She picked up the bag. It turned out to be filled with coins. "_This key may prove useful_," she thought as she picked it up.

Hermione continued through the passages with the hope she was going the right way. The lantern was getting dimmer. She did not want to run out of light.

Finally, she came to the open of a room. She hoped it was a familiar one. Walking inside, she found herself confronted with a cyclops who was preparing to eat some sheep.

"Holy Odysseus!" she blurted out as the cyclops turned his attention to her. It proved fortunate that she had read the muggle tale of the Odyssey and the Illiad, and that she could not stop herself from a relevant exclamation. The cyclops, hearing the name of the person who had blinded his father, fled the room, knocking down the far wall on the way out. The sheep, being sheep, ran frantically into an adjacent corridor and disappear amid the clattering of their hooves and frightened bleats.

Once she was satisfied that the cyclops was gone, Hermione walked across the room to inspect the hole in the wall made by the cyclop's hasty exit. It seemed to lead into another room. She cautiously stepped through the hole, looking for hidden danger.

The floor of the room was littered with discarded bags. "_A couple of these could be useful,_" she thought as she bent down to pick one up. It disintegrated into a puff of smoke as soon as she touched. She reached for another, but it also disintegrated. "_Well, that sucks_."

As she straighten back up, she noticed an intricately designed, silver chalice on the floor in the middle of the room. "_I certainly need that for my collection_," she thought, starting toward it. Just then, she noticed a shadowy figure leaning against the far wall. It looked like the thief who had robbed her earlier.

As she bent down to pick up the chalices, the thief came at her armed with to large, shiny stiletto. Frightened and not armed with any weapons, she closed her eyes and held out the egg. "_Oh God! I'm going to die_," she thought.

The sound of the thief's boots on the rocky floor abruptly stopped. She felt him take the egg from her hand. Carefully opening one eye, she saw him admiring it. She used that opportunity to dash off into the corridor the cyclops had fled earlier fled down.

Before long, she came to a large, old, wooden door with a hole through it about the same size as the cyclops. Passing through it, she found herself back in the living room of the house. "_This place keeps getting stranger and stranger_," she thought. "_You never know where you're going to pop out at_."

She opened the trophy case and places the bag of coins inside." There is a loud ding as the door closed. Looking at the floor, she noticed the large, nasty knife she had dropped there. It was twice the size of the thief's stiletto. "_I wish this was the sword, the Sword of Gryffindor_," she thought as she picked it up. "_I guess it will have to do. I have got to get the things back he stole. I am sure I need them_."

Hermione re-entered the underground through the hole in the door. She tried backtracking her flight from the room with the thief. She was determined to confront him.

Before long, she found herself back in the thief's lair. The things he had stolen from her and more were on the ground next to him. Brandishing her knife, she said in her sternest voice, "Give me back my property! Now!"

The thief raised his hand and snapped his figure. All of the treasure disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Give it back!" she demanded. The thief came at her with his stiletto ready to fight. Hermione took a step back and then got herself into a dueling position.

The thief lunged at her, taking a sweeping slash at her with his blade. She ducked as his knife passed a fraction of an inch over her head and struck a counterblow that nicked the side of his body.

He took another frantic swipe at her, but she eluded it, as well. Her return swing caught him in the neck and nearly removed his head. He fell to the ground, defeated.

A thick cloud of black smoke enveloped him as Hermione's mind tried to grasp the fact she had taken a life. His body disappeared. "_I don't think he was real," she thought. "I think he was just part of this horrible game_."

As she stepped back, she looked at the ground. All of the treasures had rematerialized. She quickly stuffed the chalice, jewel-encrusted egg, crystal skull, sapphire-encrusted bracelet into her bag. She left the stiletto, since she had the knife. The torch would not fit, so she left it, as well.

"_I need to put this away before something else happens to it_," she thought. Heading back into the passageways, she apparently took a wrong turn. In front of her was a dead end. But over her head, a little light was peeking through a grating. Reaching up, she found it to be locked by a huge padlock with a skeleton on it. "_Dammit_," she thought. "_Locked? And by a lock with a skeleton? Really? Can't have enough skeletons and drama around this stinking place_."

Then she remembered the skeleton key in her bag. The trophy case refused it. She pulled it out and tried it in the lock. It opened with a snap like the breaking of a bone. Pushing up, the grate opened, dumping a large quantity of leaves on her head. "_Perfect_," she thought.

Once up and out of the ground, she found herself in a sunny field that seemed familiar. Walking to the south on the path, she heard a songbird sings a beautiful, but slightly off-key song.

"_I know this place_," she thought as she looked at her surroundings. "_That's the tree where I found the egg. The house is that way_."

The songbird continued singing as she passed under the tree. Suddenly there was a flash of yellow and the singing bird flew up and landed over her head.

As she observed the songbird, enjoying it, even though it was a little off-key, she noticed something strange. It had a wind-up key on its side. Apparently, it was mechanical.

The bird's song wound down until it stopped. "_Awwww_," she thought. Then it fell off the branch and dropped at her feet.

She picked it up, both because she liked it and because it might belong in the trophy case. "_What the heck_," she thought, giving the key a few turns. "_I like its song. It can't hurt to listen to it a little more_."

The bird flapped its wings a couple times and started singing as it perched on her finger. She walked back toward the house as she listened. She wanted to put it away before continuing. She could almost count on something strange happening around this place. The sooner it was safe, the better.

Just as she reached the rear of the house where she could climb back inside the bird's song slowed and then stopped. Its beak popped open and a pretty, brass bauble fell out of it and landed at her feet.

"_Cool_," she thought, picking it up. "_It's a good thing I wound it up and played it. I might never have found this otherwise_."

She went in through the window and walked to the trophy case. She opened it and placed the bird, the bauble inside and her other recently recovered items inside. The chimes dinged several times as it closed. She smiled a rare of late smile.

She had hoped this might complete her quest, but nothing else out of the ordinary happened. "_How many more things does this bloody case want before it is satisfied_?" Then she remembered the bar of platinum she had seen up near the dam what seemed like an eternity ago. "_At least one more_," she thought.

All of the excitement of recovering her stolen items and fighting had worn her out. "_I'll go get it after I take a nap. I hate this place_," her mind growled.

Hermione curled up in the dilapidated chair in the corner of the room. It was the best she had for trying to rest. She felt better when she awoke. Walking into the kitchen, she ate yet another nasty sandwich and drank a bottle of water. The sandwiches all by themselves were enough to make her wish she could escape this place. They were far from her liking. However, she felt strangely rejuvenated by it and the water.

Walking back to the living room, she opened the cellar door. "Once more into my damn, dirty, damp, dark dungeon," she moaned out loud.

She passed through the troll room, passed the sword and bloody axe, passed the skeleton of what she presumed were earlier victims of the troll, and into another corridor.

The corridor led her to the edge of the canyon along where the black lake had been before it was drained. As she neared the dam she could hear a roaring noise. She was certain it was the room where she had seen the bar of platinum.

The noise grew louder and louder as she made her way to the entrance of the room. As soon as she stepped inside of the room the noise became so unbearable she had to clamp her hands over her ears.

The bar of platinum was in front of her on the ground. But she could not stand to remove her hands from her ears to take it. She tried kicking it, but it would not budge. Remembering her schooling, she remembered platinum was considerably heavier than gold, which is pretty heavy on its own.

"GRRRRRRRRRR!" she screamed in frustration. "This place is a freaking ECHO CHAMBER!"

The acoustics in the room changed a little, reducing the noise a slight amount.

"I said freaking echo chamber," she hollered. Again the noise level dropped a little.

"ECHO CHAMBER!" she screamed. The noise dropped to a level where she could uncover her ears.

She picked up the bar of platinum, which was quite heavy. The noise in the room started to increase. She quickly got out of it. She did not want to have to endure more of its painful noise.

The bar slide into her bag, which not only held it safely, it compensated for its weight. What would have been a difficult walk back to the room carry the heavy bar was now much easier.

She eventually emerged from the underground in the bright sunlight. The walk back to the house was pleasant. Of course, anything not involving being in the underground was bound to be pretty good.

She crawled into the kitchen and made it to the living room. "_Well, here's something else for this damn dinging trophy case. I wonder how many more things are left to find_?" her attitude getting the best of her.

Instead of the customary ding, there was an arpeggio of eerie chimes. Then, four other people, three girls and a boy, materialized beside her as a set of strange runes pulsed in front of her. Two of the girls appeared to be twins. The runes mutated into the Latin-looking word **_Gratulationes_**. Then they mutated further into the word **_Congratulations_** as a voice filled the room.

"_Congratulations brave adventurers_," it said. "_You have won the game. Speak its name and return to your home._"

Hermione looked at the others. They appeared to be students, but their dress was old, bordering on ancient.

"Thymus!" shouted the twins. "We saw thee slain by the troll. How is it ye yet live?

"I know not," he replied. "I has't no memory of the event."

They then hugged the other girl. "Peresila, you were murdered by the thief, yet you, too, are also alive."

"I recall the thief attacking me. I doth not recall anymore."

"We wast attacked by a troll," said one of the twins. "Methinks it killed us, too. But we art hither."

Hermione got the instant notion they were not of this time. To look at them and to hear them talk, they may have been trapped in this game for a long time, perhaps centuries. They could well account for the skeletons she found.

"I am Hermione Granger," she said. "Who might you be?"

"Mine own name is Peresila Chandler," said a tall girl in robes resembling those Hermione had seen in History of Magic books about the Middle Ages.

"I am Thymus Fletcher," said the boy. He appeared to be the eldest of the group. Hermione smiled at him, finding an instant appeal in his tall, athletic build and topping of blonde hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a fine cambric shirt of Gryffindor scarlet with gold trimming.

"Rosemary Smith" said one of the twins. They were both of average height with long, brown braids and shiny, dark eyes. It might be harder to tell them apart than Fred and George.

"Artemisia Smith," said the second twin.

They all appeared confused and apprehensive about the situation. How did they come to suddenly be here? How were they alive?

"Your dress is most strange, Hermione Granger. On which day is this that we find you?" asked Peresila. She seemed to be the leader of the group.

"I believe I've been here four or five days. But it could be longer. I am not certain," answered Hermione.

"And the date? "Uh, I can't be sure, but I am certain it is still June."

"A gross amount of time hath passed. We came hither in November."

There dress and language had Hermione puzzled. No one dresses or speaks this way. "November—uh—November of what—year—may I ask?" asked Hermione with a bit of hesitation.

"Fifteen-Thirteen of course. So this wouldst then be Fifteen-Fourteen.

"Uh, no," she replied. "This is the year Two-Thousand-Two. I think you have been here nearly five-hundred years."

"What doth thee mean? Are you playing us the fools?" asked Peresila. "How can it be near five-hundred years passed? What trickery are you playing?"

"I speak the truth," asserted Hermione. "I don't understand this place or what has happened. "How did you come to be here?"

The four of them stared at Hermione trying to decide whether or not to believe her. This was difficult to believe.

"We hath found a strange book on our way to the fair in Scarborough. It tooketh two days to unriddle the title. We finally solved the title and spoke it. We hast been hither ever since," said Peresila.

"That's curious," said Hermione. "What is curious?" asked Rosemary. "My parents, they often play a song called Scarborough Fair. The lyric go '_Are you going to Scarborough Fair__…__Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.' _Your names. Peresila is the herbology name for the plant muggles call parsley. Artemisia is sage. Thymus can be thyme. And Rosemary is, well… It is curious."

"That is curious," agreed Peresila. "What might it mean?" "I don't know," said Hermione with a puzzled look. "Maybe nothing. But it is curious. Surely your disappearances caused concern at the time. Maybe they resulted in a tale or at least a song."

"_Congratulations brave adventurers_," said the voice, once again. "_You have won the game. Speak its name and return to your home._"

"What doest that voice mean?" asked Rosemary, looking upward toward the voice.

"I think it means we have to say the name of the game," said Hermione. "Then we will go home."

"Wilt we return home to fifteen-fourteen?" asked Artemisia.

"I don't know the answer to that," replied Hermione. "I guess we must say it and hope for the best."

"We wilt then desire f'r the best," said Peresila.

Hermione looked in the direction of the trophy case and said, "Zaman Othala Raidho Kenaz." There was a clarion call. She felt dizzy, then shook her head as she looked around.

She was sitting at the table in the bookstore like she had never left. It was like she had just awoken from a nap. Perhaps she had dozed off. None of the others were there. If all of that adventure actually occurred, then they must have returned to their own time. Now she had to figure out how long she had been gone. It was quite unsettling.

Getting up from the table, she looked at her watch. She noticed the remains of the still healing cut from when she had fought the troll. It caused her stomach to clench and her mind to flash. Looking down, she saw the tear in her pant leg from the tree climbing incident. It was clear that the adventure had genuinely taken place. She glanced back at her watch. It was 3:45 pm, but on what day? Her best guess was that she had been in the game for four or five days, no more than a week.

She wondered what Ginny's reaction had been when she failed to meet her for dinner? Had she searched for her? Had she contacted Ron and Harry? Were they desperately searching for her at this very moment? She gathered her things and the book and hurried to the counter near the front of the store. An elderly man with wispy white hair, an oversize mustache and wire-rimmed glasses was sitting, reading a book as she approached.

"May I help you, miss?" he said looking up and adjusting his glasses, presumably to get a better look at Hermione.

"Yessir," she replied. "What's the date, sir?"

"It's the fourth, miss," he said. "Of June?" "Yes, of course, June fourth, two-thousand-two," he said in a voice that gave her the impression he was thinking she might be a bit daft.

"No time has passed at all," shouted a voice in her head. "Wonderful!" She still had forty-five minutes before she was to meet Ginny.

"What do you know about this book," she asked, holding up the ancient-looking volume. He reached out and took the book from her.

"Curious," he said. "I have personally put every book on every shelf in the store. But I do not recall ever seeing this particular book. Where did you find it?"

"It was back there," she said as she pointed toward the back of the store, "in the magic books, up on the top shelf."

"That's strange," he said opening it and leafing through the pages. "I wonder how it got there? It doesn't have any identifying information. I doubt I put it there. Maybe someone else left it there. But why?"

"Why, indeed?" she replied, thinking it needed to be taken back to the Ministry or Hogwarts for a thorough examination. "How much is it?"

"I don't know. I didn't buy it. It's not mine to sell. I guess I can just let you take it," he said as he handed it back to her.

"Are you certain? That is very kind."  
"Yes, please take it. It seems to be of value to you, and I have no recollection of it. Consider it a gift," he said with a smile.

"Thank you, sir," she said as she turned toward the door.

"You are welcome. Please come again." Hermione put the book into her Burberry purse as she walked back toward the quidditch pitch.

"Should I take this book to The Ministry? Or should I take it up to Hogwarts? Should I tell Ginny about this? I don't know, but I do need to find a new pair of pants." These were the only thoughts on her mind as a feeling of relief filled her up and this unexpected adventure was over.


	5. Chapter 5

Epilogue – sort of A couple months had passed since the incident with the book. Hermione had not spoken to anyone about it. However, the fact that it was stashed in her bag kept it actively tormenting her mind.

She had gone to the records library at Hogwarts to search for the others. She found a section of books that recorded all of the students who had attended the school over the centuries…yearbooks of sort. They listed each class, telling the names of the students and the houses in which they were sorted. Special honors and recognitions were also noted.

The first of the four she located Peresila Chandler. She was a member of Gryffindor. She graduated in 1516, serving as a prefect, and as head girl her final year. Thymus Chandler, was also a Gryffindor, was listed as graduating in 1515. He was a chaser on the quidditch team, and quidditch captain his sixth and seventh years. The twins, Rosemary and Artemisia Smith were listed as Ravenclaws. They graduated with highest honors at the top of the school in 1516.

Hermione had smiled, happy to know they had returned home safely and went on to finish their studies. She was particularly impressed with the twins, as she had hoped to accomplish the same feat when she graduated.

Over time she tried every spell she could find and master to learn the secrets of the magic embodied in the book. Nothing she found could crack it, even a littlest of a bit. It appeared to be some sort of ancient, long forgotten dark magic beyond the tongues of anyone she knew of today. As to be expected, this did not have the effect of calming her mind. It kept ramping up her suffering to new levels of torment. She finally reached a point where she could not lower tolerate it, even at the level of an intellectual curiosity. She decided she needed to gather the trusted group and lay the whole thing out on the table. Maybe together they could resolve things.

Ginny had a break in her quidditch schedule over the next weekend. She got with her and arranged that she would come home to The Burrow. It did not take much convincing. Harry and Ron were usually free from auror studies on the weekends. They also readily agreed to a weekend out at The Burrow.

Time passed. When Ginny walked into The Burrow, everyone was still eating breakfast. She sat down, happy to enjoy some of her mother's cooking. There was nothing like it, no matter how fancy the restaurant, that could surpass a good, home-cooked meal.

Following breakfast, the four of them went for a walk. It was a gorgeous autumn day with blue skies, a light breeze and the sounds of birds, frogs and buzzing insects filling the air. The pairs of them walked, linked together as ones without a care in the world. They eventually arrived at a distant spot between the end of the big pond and the trees. Both couples had shared more than one tender moment there over the years.

Hermione stepped away from Ron and plopped down in the grass. The others did as well.

"This was a wonderful idea," said Ginny.

"Yes, Mione," agreed Ron. "It is great to get away from studies and be with you—uh—and with all of us."

"This is really great, Hermione, really," said Harry, "but I can't help be wondering if there is a reason you arranged this. Is there anything more to this?"

"Yeah," agreed Ron. "Is there anything wrong, or is this just because you're a missing us."

"Of course, there is more," chirped Ginny. "Who'd being missing you?"

Ron scowled at Ginny, but before he could say anything Hermione spoke up.

"Actually there is more," she said as she pulled the book out of her bag and dropped it in the grass. "I want to talk to you about this book, or whatever this is."

This caused the expressions of the others to turn to ones of confusion. It was obviously a book. Anyone could see that. What was she talking about?

"Do you remember when I came to Holyhead a couple months ago for your practice and to eat?"

"Yes…sure," replied Ginny. "You had a closed practice before dinner, I went shopping to kill some of the time."

"I remember the practice, but sure."

"Anyway, I found a muggle bookstore…" said Hermione, causing Ron to interrupt her by laughing.

"C'mon," he said, still chuckling as the others kind of glared at him. "Hermione found a bookstore. You have got to admit…I mean just sayin'."

The others finally chuckled a bit. They could not deny it was a bit way too funny that Hermione would have found a bookstore to idle away some time.

"Anyway," continued Hermione, bring the discussion back on track, "I wandered around in it until I found the Magic Section. I thought looking at muggle magic might be amusing. Actually, most of it was pretty silly. Then, stuffed away in the bottom corner was this book. It didn't look like it belonged there, so I pulled it out."

She picked up the book and held it up for the others to see. It looked really old and had some weird symbols with the words '_Can You Find Your Way Home?' _written under them. The author's name was Pompeius Dominum.

"It a weird, old book," said Ron, finally breaking the silence.

"Yes," agreed Hermione. "But muggles don't usually have weird old books like this. At least none I have ever seen.

"What are those symbols?" asked Ginny. "Are they supposed to be the title of the book?"

"I guess I would call them the title, but they are really runes, really ancient and obscure ones."

"So it is a magic book from our world?" asked Harry. "And you found it in a muggle bookstore? Why would it be there?"

"Yes, it is a magic book and I found it in a muggle bookstore, but it is more than that. I was pretty sure the title was made of runes, but I had never seen any of them in class. It took me a while to decipher them. After I found them, I repeated them. Why not? The next thing I knew, I woke up in a field in some strange land."

"Blimey!" exclaimed Ron. "What is this book?"

"I don't exactly know, Ron. It is like a portkey to another world, and reading the runes is the key to activating it."

"What are you going to do with it?" he asked with a tinge of nervous apprehension in his voice. "You don't want us to…"

"No, Ron," she said, cutting him off. "I don't want all of us to go there. I never want to go there again. It was an awful place. I almost died at least a dozen times. If I hadn't been really lucky a few times, I would still be down there looking for things."

Hermione went on to detail the search she had to go on to find all of the pieces of treasure necessary to return home. She told of the horrible sandwiches and many other special unattractions. "…And when I put the bar of platinum in the trophy case it started chiming" she continued. "Four people I had never seen before appeared next to me. They turned out to be Hogwarts students from the early fifteen-hundreds. They had solved the runes and been sucked into the book. They never solved it and were killed over time by things like the troll. When I solved the game, we all got to go home. I looked them up in the records library at Hogwarts. They were real students—real people. They are listed in it."

"So what should we do with it?" asked Ginny with a raised eyebrow.

"That is why I asked you all here. I am looking for ideas," said Hermione with a hopeful gaze at the others.

"Can we destroy, like a horcrux?" asked Ron.

"I don't think so. I have tried dozens of spells on it. Nothing fazes it. I guess we could try the Sword of Gryffindor, if any of you know where it is. I tried a basilisk fang I found in my bag. It did not harm it."

"We could take it somewhere and hide it, bury it, or dump it to the bottom of the Black Lake," said Harry. "I thought about that. But things like this seem to have a magic to them that will eventually make them turn up. How did that book get into that muggle bookstore? Peresila and the others couldn't have put it there. That shop didn't even exist in their time."

"Have you taken it to the Ministry?" asked Ginny.

"No. It is a horrible thing to say since I work there," said Hermione with a grim look. "But I don't think that would be wise. They would tinker with it and someone would get hurt, or worse, they would unriddle the magic and who knows then how it might be used?"

"Yeah, right," said Ron. "What about Hogwarts? You could take it up there."

"That's a good idea, Ron. What do you think Harry? Ginny?"

The group decided that Hermione should go up to the school and talk to the professors. The next day she left by portkey to Hogsmeade.

As Hermione walked into the Great Hall, breakfast was just coming to an end. The place was a clamor of students preparing to head off to class. She dodged her way through them as she made her way toward the head table. The first to spot her amongst the chaos was Professor Hagrid.

"Allo, Hermione," he bellowed over the ruckus in his typically cheerful voice.

This, of course, called the attention of the others.

"Miss Granger," said a smiling Professor McGonagall. "This is a nice surprise. It is so good to see you."

Several of the other professors gave her a cheerful greeting. "What brings you here to see us?" inquired Professor McGonagall.

"I have a question—actually a bit of a problem. I am hoping you can help me solve it."

"Why of course we'll try to help you. What is this problem?"

"I found this book," she said as she retrieved it from her bag. "Could we find a quieter place to talk? I want to tell you about it."

"Of course," replied the professor. "Let's get out of this commotion and go up to my office."

"Wonderful," said Hermione.

They made their way out of the hall and up the spiraling stairs to the office of the headmistress. They walked in and Professor McGonagall said as she sat down," Please tell me about this book that you found."

Hermione proceeded to retell her story as Professor McGonagall examined the book. The professor was particularly intrigued by the part about the students from the sixteenth century. By the end, she was aghast by the implications of it.

"If this is all true," she said, looking over her glasses, "then this book is a very powerful device made from an ancient form of dark magic that is unknown today. It is clearly quite dangerous."

"I swear it is all true. All of it," replied Hermione in a very earnest voice. "I even looked up the students in the records library. They were very real people. It is all there."

"Well," said the professor, clearing her throat and adjusting her small, oval reading glasses. "What are your plans for it?"

"That is why I am here," said Hermione, picking up the book from where the professor had sat it down. "We—uh—Ron and Harry and Ginny and I have tried to destroy it. We used every spell we could master. None of them work. I tried the basilisk fang I had saved from the battle. It didn't hurt it, either. I am hoping you might have some ideas on what to do with it."

"Oh—well—I am not certain what we can do with it. Did you take it to the Ministry?"

"No, I was afraid they would want to start tinkering with it. I was scared of what might happen if they had it."

"Yes—well, you are probably right. It might be best they don't get it."

"There has to be something we can do," said Hermione, sounding a little frustrated.

"There is a place in the library. I have never actually seen it or opened it. It is called the Forbidden Section. Have you heard of it?"

"No, professor."

"Well, best you haven't. Professor Dumbledore created it many years ago. He gave me a spell to open it in case something happened to him, but I have never used it. I guess we could put it in there."

"That sounds perfect, professor. Can we go do it, now?"

"Well, I think it is best you know as little as possible about it. I will take it there. Is that okay?"

"Yes, professor. That will be fine."

And so Professor McGonagall went to the library and with the help of Madam Pince, who had to open a secret location in the shelves for the professor to open the Forbidden Section. Once opened, the book was safely locked away.

As they closed the shelves a confundus charm created by Professor Dumbledore was cast by the Forbidden Section making them forget they had been there and what they had locked away. The charm, like so many of Dumbledore's creations, was exceedingly powerful. Not only had it affected Hermione, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pince, but it had also reached out and 'cleared' the minds of Harry, Ron and Ginny. And thus, the book was securely hidden away.


End file.
